I r . / a n d Mrs. Fred L. S a t t e r f i e l d ,
torft / 5 , E e n d e r s o n v i l l e , N. c .
THE
L u l i n e L. Mabry.
R t . 5 . Hendersonvil
N. c .
SATTERFIELDS.
V}
"Mama, why cant we ever have a house with nice things in it the
way other folks do?"
This {plaintive, yet purely rhetorical] question came from the fresh
red lips of an attractive 18 year old girl.,.and—pJLeyeed the fond—heart
ofr"n"er~"taTl—dark oyod-mother.
It was an oft repeated query in this
meager home consisting of aa—faar&eiiigcrrt father, mother and five children, and ever the answer must be the same, and never could it be very
encouraging.
With the momentarily clouded eyes in the upturned face of her
ambitious daughter still seeking an answer, the troubled mother was
forced for perhaps the hundredth time to reply:
"Because, honey, whatever your father is able to earn always has to
go for the things you children must have to go to school, and to #eep
up our other necessary expenses."
Five mornings each v/eek Annie, 18, and Mildred, 16, must hurriedly
assist in getting ready for school their little brother, Fred Lee, age
11, named for his father, and the little eight year old sister, Louise,
so they can hasten down the road
where the school bus picks them up and
carries them to their respective schools. This leaves at home only
small Walter, four years old, to be amused and cared for by his mother
and his father when he can be at nome.
This being Annie's last year in high school, with her sister, Mildred
but a step behind her, necessarily brings up the age-old problem for
the parents, as their two pretty daughters reach the age when they will
naturally seek and need some sort of social life. They are not allowed
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Satterfield
2
to go to many parties, and while most of their social contacts are those
to be found in their church affiliations, still it is reasonable to think
that they will soon be wanting somewhere to entertain boy friends.
But where and how?
Surely not in the comfortless and shabbily furn-
ished rented house they call home, with its bare floors, its few rickety
chairs and a bed in every one of the four rooms.
Had not these girls been so carefully reared and so loved and protected
by wise and loyal parents they might already be following the questionable
examples of so many of their friends, and meeting their boy friends as best!
they could, leaving their parents totally without knowledge of the»n whereabouts and their activities.
During vacations both girls find what small employment they can. Last
fall Annie had earned enough money by doing fine ironing to buy materials
for her winter school clothes which she made herself.
Her grandmother
lives near a summer guest house and does laundry for the summer guests
and Annie spent most of the summer with her grandmother and helped her
do this work.
Mildred took care of a family of children near by home and earned
something toward her school clothes, thus taking quite a burden from her
father's budget.
Mr, Satterfield, a South Carolinina by birth, has always been identified with mill work of some sort.
Before he finished his three years in
school he was working after school hours in a cotton mill, for which he
was paid ten cents a day.
A little later he was taken on as a regular
employe and was paid 60^ a day.
some 32 years ago. He no
Thus his education endedm
This was
works in a hosiery mill in Hendersonville, but
is today making what he considers a satisfactory wage on which he is able
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Satterfield 5.
to provide most of the necessities for his family.
He is entirely satis-
fied with, his employers and considers himself fortunate to be earning
so much better wages than formerly, and working under so much better
conditions.
However, they have not fully recovered from the very lean days which
overtook them while he was learning to operate a modern knitting machine.
For about eight months he had to stretch a wage of :|p8 a week to cover
their living expenses, which he supplemented by working every Saturday
in a grocery store.
Even this was scarcely sufficient to care for his
growing family, especially in view of the ill health of Mrs. Satterfield,
so that today they are still paying debts incurred during those
weary
and discouraging eight hard months. That is the real answer to the
question which Annie asks her mother when her ambition is awakened by
a glimpse into a more prosperous home where some of her young friends
live.
Mrs. Satterfield came from a farm family and went to school for
about eight years. It seemed necessary for her to go to work at that
time, so she went into a cotton mill and worked only about three months.
She was not in tune with this sort of work, however, and decided she
would
rofer housework, so until her marriage she did domestic work in
various families,
Both Mr. and Mrs. Satterfield realize the value of education for
their children and are making many sacrifices to send their children to
school. Annie is taking typeing this year at school and her father plans
to give her whatever i'urther assistance he may be able to by way of helping
her into a business career. Neither of the oldest gtrls want to teach.
•
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Satterfield 4
Mr. Satterfieldis
proud that he is able to educate each of his children
and is grateful for the present-day school system.
"I've earned enough money many times over to own a home", says Mr.
Satterfield, "but always the money had to go for other things, and our
children came so often that I never could get out of debt.
to have a car to get to my work and home again.
I just have
Only by renting small
places some distance from town can we manage to live at all. We must have
a little garden space and a pasture for our cow.
Last year we had two
pigs, but this year we have none at all."
Continues Mr. Satterfield, "I like my working conditions and am thankful
to get on as well as we do, but there is something wrong with things these
days.
Money just doesnt buy enough any more.
It is always my pleasure
to be at home with my family when I'm not on my job. There is where I find
my amusement and all my interests are centered in trying to provide for
my wife and children, but I dont seem to be getting anywhere. I dont know
what the trouble is »I used to vote but for the last two or three years
I've lost interest in it. Nothing seems to me quite so useless asxpEil
politics".
"I'm not saying I think the world is going to the dogs, because
I know thp churches are doing good work. All we can judge b
children, and we know
is our own
they are better because they attend Sunday School
and church. We give all we can afford to to the church, but we hope we
will never have to ask the church for assistance ourselves. In cases of
extreme poverty or sudden sickness we believe the church ought to help
folks to some extent, but not to bear the entire burden of the poor
families".
Joining in the conversation Mrs. Satterfield declares she would
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Satyfer fields
5
rather have her children at the movies if they could afford it than
going to modern dances and driving around in speeding cars with reckless
young drivers.
Still there is a cheerful and affectionate atmosphere in the Satter£ie.lfl home, appreciative smiles passing between husband and wife, and
little Walter clinging to his mother's knee as we sit around the kitchen
stove visiting and comparing notes on everything in general.
7890